A Glimpse into Emberwick - Release Video
Twelve ready-to-teach narrative writing lessons for Years 7 to 9. Open one file, press the right arrow and teach. No prep, no logins, no student devices, and it works offline.
What a lesson looks like
You run every lesson from the computer on your projector or board. Your students write on paper, in their own printed Keeper's Journal. Each lesson follows the same steps, so the class always knows what comes next: a short story, a warm-up, one teaching point, a model you build in front of the class move by move, a piece you write together, their own writing, and a Lamp Check to finish.
Your notes are on every step. Press ? and you get what to say, questions to ask the class and the answers. Press G for model answers at three levels. A timer, hints and reveals are one key away.
Why your class will remember it
The lessons are set in Emberwick, a little harbour town where the lights are going out. Every lesson your class finishes relights more of the painted town, and a class lamp in the corner fills as you go. It's the same solid writing lesson you'd teach anyway, with a story your students want to see the end of.
One set of lessons for a mixed class
Every room has three Lamps: the First Lamp pitched at Year 7, the Second at Year 8 and the Third at Year 9, which adds a mentor passage. Each Lamp has its own starters, stretch, small-group support and a task for fast finishers.
Fits your timetable
Every lesson in the Lesson Guide shows what to skip or shorten for a 50-minute period, and where to split it if you have 45 minutes.
Covered when you're away
The Relief Lesson Cards give a relief teacher one page per lesson: how to run it cold, the flow with minutes, what to say and the exit ticket.
Ready for reports
The Lesson Guide links the writing rubric to the achievement standard, with a suggested A to E reading and a Common Core 4-3-2-1 reading.
The lessons
- Answer the Letter
- The Reading Room
- The Ink Garden (precise vocabulary)
- The Mirror Hall (tone and genre)
- The Whispering Gallery (dialogue)
- The Portrait Room (character)
- The Window Room (description)
- The Bindery (revising and drafting)
- First Light (the Unfinished Tale begins)
- The Long Night
- Dawn
- Light the Great Lamp
Plus a bonus lesson, The Spyglass Stair (point of view and narrator voice).
How it runs
- One HTML file. Open it in Chrome or Edge and press F for full screen.
- Arrow keys, Space or a presentation clicker move you through the lesson.
- Works offline, needs no logins and stores nothing about your students. There's a one-page sheet for your IT team in the zip.
- Australian or US English: a Spelling choice in Settings switches the on-screen spelling. The voices and the printed Journal and Guide stay Australian.
- Settings also has a reading font, larger text and less movement.
- Painted art, voices and music are all inside the file.
Curriculum
Written for the Australian Curriculum: English (v9) in Years 7 to 9, and mapped to four more: the US Common Core State Standards, the National Curriculum in England (Key Stage 3), Cambridge Lower Secondary English and IB MYP Language and Literature. The Lesson Guide lists the links on each lesson page.
Want more later?
A Student Game Edition, where each student writes on their own device and hears back from the characters, is on its way as an optional extra. You don't need it: this edition is complete on its own.
How it was made
The painted art, the music and most of the voices were made with AI tools and then chosen and edited by us. Two of the voices are our own.
Licence
For use by the purchasing teacher with their own classes. You may put these files on a password-protected or school-internal site (such as your school's learning platform) for your own classes. Please don't post them on a public website or share them outside your classes.
Questions? starclassacademy.com/help?ref=sh or hello@starclassacademy.com
Made by two teachers, one primary and one secondary, who have taught in classrooms around the world.
What's included
- The lessons: one offline HTML file for your projector or board (12 lessons plus a bonus lesson)
- Keeper's Journal (PDF, 48 pages): the pages that follow the screen step by step, a pick-your-Lamp page for every room, a Word Hoard, a "Lamps Lit" tracker and the Unfinished Tale pages
- Teacher Lesson Guide (PDF, 103 pages): flow and timings, the 50-minute version of each lesson, teacher notes, answers and sample writing, the rubric and reporting page, curriculum links and printable fill-the-gaps frames
- Relief Lesson Cards (PDF, 13 pages)
- For Your IT Team (PDF, 1 page)
- START HERE quick guide
